Displacement
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: None of us truly know why those that were one a plane that disappeared for over five years did so. We can't assume that they're not who they are or knew why they were gone for such a long time. One brings up only a possibility, just a theory, that may be true, but has examples of certainty. They also stress that miracles occur everyday, just not the ones you truly want to witness.


Creation began on 02-18-20

Creation ended on 02-25-20

Manifest

Displacement

A/N: My first _Manifest _story, so please be gentle.

A lot of people still listen to the radio in this day and age, even at night. Some people even called to have their voices broadcast live over the airwaves, just to be heard by those they didn't know.

"…And we have a new caller that wishes to go by the name B.C.," a lady on the radio inside the Stones' house went as Ben and Grace were listening. "Are you ready, B.C.?"

"Yes, Jessica," a man responded on the radio.

"So, B.C., what will you talking about for our segment this evening? The President of the USA? Immigration? Movie stars? Or what everybody else has been talking about since it started?"

"You mean, the passengers of Flight 828, men and women that dozens of people in the world believed died because the plane went missing," B.C. expressed. "Well, my original intent was to talk about the immigration issues that are being ignored by people, but now I really feel the need to say something about what people don't seem to understand about the ones that were on that plane when it…supposedly…disappeared. Why are people making such a fuss about Flight 828? While I am among those who are glad to see that they're alive and trying to move on with their lives, to reclaim their sense of normality in a world that had to move on without them, I find it to be a complete waste of people's time to hassle them about where they were or did during the five-and-a-half years they were presumed dead or missing. We can't just…go and assume they were dead or aren't the people we knew of or know personally…because the truth is, we don't know anything about what happened to them…or even why it happened to them when it could've happened to anyone else on some other plane, or a boat or a bus."

Grace looked at Ben, wondering if B.C. was one of those believers or Xers that hated and feared them enough to want them dead. But the way he was talking about them didn't seem to indicate that he was fearful or had a vendetta to get them.

"And…you don't believe that the passengers are a miracle or something else mysterious?" Jessica asked.

"No, I believe they are a miracle, but not in the fact that they returned after being gone for a long time," he answered. "I believe they are a miracle in the fact that they're alive, that they're not dead. There are miracles happening around us all the time, but we don't really see them as miracles because they don't affect us on a grand scale. Just yesterday, I had a miracle happen to a friend of mine. His son had a school play that he wanted to see, and he thought he wasn't going to make it to his school because a police officer stopped him on the road for a ridiculous accusation of driving while intoxicated…and he had been sober for almost two years. The cop just wanted to hassle him because he felt he could due to having authority when he's supposed to be a civil servant. But in the end, he was able to get to his kid's play on time. That was a miracle. A small, insignificant miracle that nobody else notices because it doesn't make the news. Has anything happened to you that you consider a miracle, Jessica? Something you felt was good, but was unnoticed by others?"

"Yes, now that you mention it," Jessica explained. "My father finally received a new kidney after waiting for almost two years on dialysis. That was a miracle."

"Yes, and it's those little things that are going around unnoticed because everyone wants to talk about the people that didn't do anything miraculous, nothing divine, nothing of any significance that stems from getting onto an ordinary plane on a regular day. All they did was board a plane at some airport…and go up into the air. I don't believe there was anything divine about any of them…unless you believe in temporal displacement."

"I'm sorry, temporal…"

"Temporal displacement. It's basically the theory of being relocated from one point in time to another point in time."

"Like a time machine?"

"No, like time travel, but there's no manual, no instructions, and no warning. Maybe that's why we all think they went missing or died. They went missing…because they were displaced in time, sent five-and-a-half years into the here and now, and we're just speculating that something else happened because we don't know anything other than what we can understand from our own past experiences. If you were displaced ahead into the future and nobody knew where you were, we'd be left to think you were dead or just missing, but if you're the same as before you disappeared, then it has to be displacement, and maybe the way to go back…is to do nothing but what you have to do to make the best of the life you're trying to reclaim for the time being."

"But wouldn't that be an act of God to do that?"

"No, because it would be a phenomenon that's as random as…as a meteor striking a forest and not starting a fire. Or some other form of causality. Nobody can grab the nearest book on the shelf in a library without influencing a car crash in a town far away from where they live. I mean, every action has an untold number of effects, some completely unrelated or unanticipated…or that won't happen for a long time."

"But the time displacement theory you mentioned, is it possible that the people that were on that flight are likely to, I don't know, be subject to something as unlikely as being erased from existence if they did something they weren't supposed to do?"

There was a short pause on the radio…until this B.C. guy responded, "Only if you believe in temporal situations that were made in films like the _Terminator _and _Back to the Future _franchises. But there's also one other possibility that could occur from why people that experience temporal displacement end up in the future more so than in the past. Predestination, events predetermined, serving a higher authority and the like, and once those factors have been achieved, when is said and done, those displaced by these temporal phenomena may be given a choice to remain in what is their new present…or return to before they were displaced while retaining the knowledge they have of the future and living as though what occurred to them never happened…because it didn't happen."

"That…is very deep."

Ben found such a possibility to be likely; if this was temporal displacement, and once the people involved with Flight 828 had done whatever it was they were supposed to do, they could choose to return to the past before they were displaced or choose to remain in the present. If so, then maybe they could go back to before the plane took off, before everything changed.

Olive and Cal would be the same because Cal never got on the plane with him, Michaela would still be engaged to Jared, and even Bill Daly, the pilot of the flight, would still be alive. But it was only a possibility, nothing more than a theoretical assumption.

"Could something of the sort truly happen to people that become victims of such circumstances?" Jessica asked.

"It's only a theory," he responded. "Nobody's sure of anything. We can't assume anything, no matter what we want to see happen. We should just treat the people that got on that plane the way we treat people that got on some other plane…or a boat or a bus, the way we treat our friends, our neighbors, our pets or what have you. Everyone's got their blessings or curses, their goals and issues, and hopes and fears. It doesn't matter if you got on a plane or entered a rundown building. People can witness a miracle that nobody else will consider a miracle happening every other day. Someone that thought they were going to die in a car crash avoiding a car crash, someone thinking that they'll only live to be eighty-three managing to live to be eighty-five, a mother who thought her baby was going to die due to being born prematurely suddenly doing a one-eighty turn and living to see a future. Those are the everyday miracles that matter."

-x-

Michaela had been listening to the radio broadcast with Zeke and had to wonder if this B.C. guy was either a stable fanatic or a guy that had ties to the Xers or wanted to stop them with a simple talk on the radio. The way he spoke subtly about the "how" and "why" the people on Flight 828 ended up where they were in the here and now, it was as though he had his own beliefs about why they were here and who they were instead of what they were or were not. He had to believe they were just regular people, not aliens or clones or robots or whatever it was that other people thought they were.

"…He was right, though," she heard Zeke say about him.

"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"The small miracles that occur everyday that most people overlook," he explained. "Surviving accidents, beating cancer, getting somewhere to meet someone that's expecting you to show up. Small miracles we overlook."

"Yeah…those are small miracles."

Everyday is a day for miracles

A/N: To those that know my work, that know who the mystery character is, I thank you for taking interest in this story.


End file.
